Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-18

PiO'uotNc iiDOltlc. ~ lew NIUu ana
water mills-some working animals
measured the degree of their control
over natural forces. The plow even
was unknown. An idle class did not
exist. No coupon cutters, no tramps.
Agriculture was the principal occupa-
ton. There were but few employees.
The hours of labor were from sunrise
to sunset the year round. On the
seventh day they rested universally,
and this rest day, its observance en-
forced by public opinion, gave their
brains a chance for development.
The labor was not as severe as now,
for the free workman does not over
work himself. The vast majority pur-
sued their respective callings as they
pleased, worked what hours they liked,
charged their customers such prices as
retained this custom. They could all
live and ask no mans permission.
Land was to be had at the purchasers
price. Every man if he wished could
employ himself.
The workingman's toll then assured
him II home, allowed him to marry.
Early marriage rooted him in virtue.
True, the home was rude, the wife sun
burned and hardy, the food coarse and
unwsthetic. But the home was pcrma-
nent. Children's grandchildren were
reared in it. The food vas nutritious,
plentiful, unadulterated; none were
hungry of necessity. The clothing
would wear and the wife would last.
The house was her province. Her
children imbibed morality from her
kisses; learned industry from the tire
less whir Of her spinning wheel. The
tax for their education was gladly paid.
The free school was invented by the
workingman rs legislator. Vice
and drunkenness then only stood be-
tween man and his future. But the
s.rOng drinks were unsophisticated;
TIE frcnzies by drunkenness, deliriums,
mania, latent in the poisonous adult
terations of our day, were almost I'M
known.
The laws were obeyed. Corruption
known but to be o~stracised. Ostenta-
ton was ashamed. The president
elect hltched his horse to the railing
before the capitol and walked up the
steps unannounced, unheralded, with
no fanfaron. to take the oath of office.
The actual working force was per-
haps equal to that of 900, 600 of man
power. The utilized forces Of nature
probably added to this the equivalent of
SOC, 900 more. Thus the working
force of a man supported probably two
persons ia these wholesome, if humble.
and liberty-generatlng, if rude con-
ditions.
| do not believe that Tom Jefferson,
when he built Monticello, required of
his workmen an assent to the declar-
alton when he hired them. Perhaps
the fact that they voted satisfied him of
their saIth in il. He abhorreG slavery.
Yet if his slaves had formed a union,
asked for larger rations or shorter
hours, he who had THAT control and
authority absolutely essential to the
proper conduct of his business who
fed and clothed them in lieu of wages,
who furnished them employment and
spent what they earned for him in pro-
fuse hospitality, would probably have
felt about it as the master builders do
would have been appalled, at their in
gratitude.
1he people of that day were not as
learned as we are, but they were GER
tainly rs wise. They had little dissen-
sion, litigation and strife. They We're
patriots. all. There was no red flag
then. True, they tolerated slavery.
but they regarded the blacks as an in
ferior race-the sons Of Ham-doomcd
to toll. The great Methodist revivalist
of the day bred negroes, and, selling
them, with the proceeds educated mis-
sionaries; but those recognized as hay
ing rights enjoyed theL to the full. A
government ordaining these rights--a
republicans the only one possible
for such a people. 1t had revolted at
''control and authority"
To-day we are about slxty-iive mill
ions. There are perhaps fifteen null
ions of workers. But We have i'm
pressed The forces of nature. lnclud-
ing working animals with them the es-
innate is low that states the vOlun e OF
power, measured by man rs the unit,
at $50. 900. Then the working
force of one man supported two, now
the working force of ten is avail
able for the support OF one.
Our working capacity has in
creased twenty times as rapidly as our
population. If the people sustained
now the same economic relations they
did before the Introduction of labor
saving machinery, the average means
| of enjoyment of life in possession of
| each would be twenty-fold what it then
was. We would be twenty times as
happy as far as exterior circumstances
can affect human happiness.
Before that we were making moral
progress. Land was too cheap to
bring rent. The great colonial estates
were in process of subdivision. Slav-
cry was gradually dying in a land
where the inequalities OF men were
mainly owing to diff of desert.
The people Of all lands loved us, the
bold barons all hated us. We were
the refuge of the oppressed. But with
this wondrous development came the
protean-shaped bold baron again. In
spite OF the abolition of ~primogeniture,
49, - Il ,.nnntrnl